Latest Cases

Income tax – Repayment. The Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) (the tribunal) allowed the taxpayer's appeal against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) to strike out her appeal against the rejection of her claim for repayment of overpaid income tax. The tribunal decided that s 118(2) of the Taxes Management Act 1970 applied to such a late claim making it a claim within Sch 1AB to that Act with the result that the enquiry, closure notice and appeal provisions of Sch 1A to the Act would apply. 

Sentencing – Rape – Oral penile penetration. High Court of Justiciary: Allowing an appeal against sentence by the Crown in the case of a respondent who was found guilty of orally raping a 14-year-old complainer, the daughter of his partner, and was sentenced to 3 years' imprisonment, the court held that the sentence was unduly lenient, as falling out with the range reasonably open to the trial judge, and it substituted a sentence of 5 years' imprisonment. 

Tort – Cause of action. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the defendant's appeal against, among other things, the finding that it was liable in misuse of private information and/or for breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. The judge had been right to hold that the claimants, three children of a well-known musician, had had a reasonable expectation in the privacy of the photographs and that their rights under art 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights had outweighed the defendant's right under art 10 of the Convention. 

Contract – Offer and acceptance. The Technology and Construction Court held that in a dispute regarding an adjudication in a construction contract, an email exchange on 3 March 2015 had constituted a valid and binding agreement upon the parties. That agreement had not been rescinded by M, rather, M had accepted B's repudiatory breach of contract. 

Natural justice – Duty to act fairly. The Administrative Court allowed the claimant's application for judicial review of the defendant local authority's decision to drop options set out in its documents concerning developing an estate. The authority's decision had been unlawful, as enough had not changed to entitle the authority to stop consulting on the options and there were no bars to the grant of relief. 

Sentencing – Sexual offences against children. High Court of Justiciary: Allowing an appeal against sentence by an appellant who was convicted of raping and using lewd and libidinous practices towards his teenaged daughter and the teenaged stepdaughter of a work colleague, the court held that the trial judge did not take sufficient account of the significant and unexplained delay in bringing the case to trial, and the cumulative effect of the consecutive sentences imposed had produced an overall sentence (16 years' imprisonment) which was excessive, particularly in the case of a first offender: the court substituted sentences resulting in an overall sentence of 12 years' imprisonment. 

Criminal law – Threatening or abusive behaviour – Availability of defence of self-defence – Burden of proof. High Court of Justiciary: Refusing an appeal against conviction, the court held that a sheriff did not misdirect the jury when he told them that the special defence of self-defence had no relevance to a charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner under s 38(1) of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010; s 38(2) did not impose a legal burden on an accused as opposed to an evidential one and the sheriff did misdirect the jury on that matter; however, as the appellant's behaviour could not, on any view, be characterised as having been reasonable, notwithstanding the misdirection there had been no miscarriage of justice. 

Value added tax – Exemptions. The Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) (the tribunal) dismissed the appeal by United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal (Tax Chamber) (the FTT) that UGLE did not qualify for exemption from VAT pursuant to art 132 of Council Directive (EC) 2006/112 as its aims were not of a philosophical, philanthropic or civic nature. The tribunal upheld the FTT's decision, deciding that the FTT had not erred in law in the way it had dealt with the issues before it. 

Medical practitioner – Professional conduct committee. The Administrative Court found that the Fitness to Practise Panel (the panel) of the respondent General Medical Council had been correct in finding six charges against the appellant doctor proved. However, it had erred in finding proved a charge that the appellant had attended a conference where he had stated that the closure rate of atrial shunts was 94% and did not qualify his statement. 

Arbitration – Practice. The Commercial Court allowed an application by the claimant companies to enforce a peremptory order against the defendant Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq (KRG). The court held that jurisdiction existed to make the order, KRG did not have state immunity, and it was appropriate for the court to exercise its discretion.